Health Care Management Program

The Art and Economics of the Graduate Admission Essay

Tuesday, January 8, 2013 by Susan Gagnon

Occasionally, I meet up with a potential graduate student who has a touch of anxiety about writing their statement of intent, one of the application components for Granite State College's Master's Degree Programs. I gently explain that it is 500-1000 word statement which includes professional goals and aspirations, motivation for applying for the degree, and relevant formal or informal experiences. I suggest that they start by predicting their career future. Where do they see themselves in a few years? What narrative can they bring to the program? Review the course descriptions carefully, envision the skills taught in GSC graduate classes, and apply them personally and professionally. Review the Granite State College practitioner based graduate faculty. Where do they work? What can you gain from their real world experience? After these brief suggestions to the applicant, I sense relief on their part.

The greatest presumed anxiety on graduate essay writing is marketed to the upper tier and ivy b-school applicants. You can hire an editor, work with a coach, or just purchase one. I found a multitude of options on the internet. What is most alarming is that, if you think you are darn good enough for an elite school, one would hope that penning the perfect picture of your business acumen would be YOU. A well thought out and perfectly written statement about YOU can only come from YOU.

The GSC Office of Graduate Studies understands that you are who you are. You want to succeed and we're here to see that you do. Our degrees are concise, focused, and applicable to numerous businesses and industries.

Project management is the application of knowledge, skills and techniques to execute projects effectively and efficiently. It’s a strategic competency for organizations, enabling them to tie project results to business goals - and thus, better compete in their markets--according to the Project Management Institute (PMI).

The Master of Science in Leadership program focuses on an action-learning approach, intended to leverage the interdisciplinary backgrounds of participants and help build leadership competencies. We believe that the principles of leadership, when mastered, are applicable in any environment – whether commerce, education, health care, government, or social services.

To find out more about GSC's programs, give us a call at 603.513.1135 or visit www.granite.edu. And, relax about writing our essay, we know you can do it.

The Power of being in control

Friday, May 4, 2012 by Danielle Dodd

There are some really cool things that Granite State College provides there students with to help them succeed. One huge helper is my WebROCK portal. I log into that and I have access to so much more! I can change my name and adress if I move or get married, I can check my grades, and my financial aid. This year I even get to take control over my financial aid package through WebROCK. The coolest thing for me to be able to do in WebROCK is too keep tabs on my degree! I can see what courses I have taken, what courses need to be taken and all of my course options all laid out in front of me! I don't have to call and ask someone else what they think I should do. After all, this is my degree! If I am smart enough to get through the classes then I think I am smart enough to choose them. Besides, I have a specific mind of where I want to go. I want to be a child psychologist someday, so for my electives I want to choose classes that would make sense for my studies. I know when I am through with my undergraduate psychology degree I am going to be 100% satisfied because I chose the classes I wanted based on what interested me. I have to say that my favorite feature on WebROCK is the "What if Analysis". Let's say I get bored with psychology and want a BS Health Care Management. All I have to do is click a few buttons and the screen will show me what courses would transfer into the new degree program and what courses I would have left to take! Is that not the coolest thing ever? No more wasting money bouncing from program to prgram. I can try it out for free to see if it "fits"!

A Reason For A College Education

Thursday, April 12, 2012 by Beth McKenna

Have you ever wondered if a college education was a good idea? Have you debated with yourself about going back to school, spending all that money to find out things you already know? Have friends told you there is no purpose in going to college?

Well, think for a minute about what you want to be doing 5, 10 even 20 years from now. Do you want to be doing the same thing you are doing now? Are you up to date with the latest technology for your field? Well a college education can help you to change careers or get up to date with the technological advances in your field. Recently I spoke to someone who started college right out of high school but then stopped. He works in the landscaping field. He wishes he knew something about running a business so he could work for himself. I suggested college courses and he said no way was he going to sit around in a classroom. Then I suggested on line courses. You can take them when your schedule allows it. You can take the courses you need for your career, or you can put together a program of classes for a particular degree. He is considering the idea and maybe you should too!

Did you know that Granite State College offers many different kinds of degree programs? They have on line and face to face courses to meet your needs. Maybe you want Special Education Teacher certification after being a paraprofessional for many years. Maybe you are thinking of an undergraduate psychology degree, or a health care management program. Consider the options and consider that things are changing so fast in our society, that without training, it will be hard for anyone to be prepared for a career, even 5 years from now. Don't be left behind. Think about your reason for a college education.

Health and Wellness - It's in our hands

Tuesday, November 15, 2011 by Cathy Driesch

I recently attended the Business NH Health Care Summit in Manchester - an event and topic that interests me greatly, thanks to my role as program director of the Granite State College Bachelors degree in Health Care Management. The New England Director of the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services, Christi Hager, delivered the keynote where she discussed what has transpired since Health Care Reform was introduced and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Many businesses and agencies were represented at the conference and all are grappling with the high cost of health care benefits. Small companies tend to pay 18% more in premiums than larger corporations resulting in them being a third less likely to offer insurance. The State Based Insurance Exchange will make coverage more affordable for small businesses and is slated to be available in 2014.

We learned that New Hampshire has one of the highest quality health care delivery systems in the country and has the highest rate of private insurance coverage at 72%.

A panel consisting of HR representatives from a large corporation and a small business, a physician, the president of NH Hospital Association, a representative from AARP, and someone from Harvard Pilgrim N.E. answered questions and discussed emerging trends. Health care costs have lead to a trend in companies and insurance agencies to promote wellness among their employees. These initiatives range from discounts on health club memberships, sport teams, onsite health professionals, onsite fitness centers, regular safety assessments, smoke-free workplaces, walking clubs, and preventative care, to free health coach consultations from insurance providers. The bottom line is that to control health care costs, companies need to embrace wellness programs.

How do you get started?

Get connected with your HR department
Form a wellness committee
Connect with other business – find out what they’ve done and set benchmarks
Create the infrastructure to support the initiative and promote cultural transformation
Develop an action plan – get data- build collaboration
Get to know your co-workers/employees
Investigate what support your insurer may provide
Develop partnership with local pharmacist to assist with education in the workplace
Go to: http://healthaffairs.org/

On the Road

Tuesday, November 8, 2011 by Cathy Driesch

For the past several months I have been touring New Hampshire with a colleague promoting Granite State College’s new Bachelor of Science in Health Care Management. This degree program offers courses in health care administration, policy, emerging trends, fiscal management, and health information systems.

The specialized skills you will acquire from this degree will prepare you to coordinate technology, people and resources. Job opportunities exist in a number of health related settings such as hospitals, nursing homes, health care agencies, non-profits, non-governmental agencies such as the Red Cross, and medical practices. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, ten of the 20 fastest growing occupations are health care related. Health care will also generate 3.2 million new wage and salary jobs before 2018, more than any other industry, largely in response to rapid growth in the elderly population. http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs035.htm

We have visited Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Catholic Medical Center, New London Hospital, The VT/NH annual conferences for Physical Therapists, Respiratory Therapists and Occupational Therapists and several of the NH Community Colleges. It’s great to be able to go where potential students are and answer their questions, provide materials, and arrange appointments. In addition, at every event, we’ve had GSC alumni stop by to say hello and let us know how their degree has impacted their lives and career opportunities.

If you already have college credit, let us evaluate your transcripts as you may qualify for the “Fast Track” degree completion option and earn your bachelor’s degree online in as little as 18 months! Visit us online at www.granite.edu or call us toll free at 1-888-228-3000 for more information or to get started today!

Changing how we Educate

Wednesday, August 24, 2011 by Todd Leach

The Concord Monitor recently ran a story entitled "Changing the way we Educate" that profiled Granite State College and the unique ways in which we serve undergraduate and graduate students. The focus of the article was largely on how Granite State College balances business and academics, and how we are addressing a 48% cut in state appropriations (the largest cut ever made to the USNH appropriations). While the cut certainly impacts us, Granite State College has been very innovative this past year, launching a new BS in Health Care Management and developing our first masters degree (an MS in Project Management). We also streamlined our admissions processes, eliminated some fees, and adopted a "student-centered" approach that led to schedule improvements and the creation of student success teams.

Granite State College's innovations are leading to record enrollment levels for the college in spite of budgetary cuts. It is our ability to be responsive to student and employer needs that is becoming the college's hallmark. GSC has long been a leader in online education and today every degree the College offers is available entirely online, including our new MS in Project Management. For GSC, having our degrees available online is not enough, we have gone beyond that by building a top instructional design team that includes a media-rich specialist and adding greater support for online students through services such as online tutoring. We also provide our faculty with more tools than just the learning management system, one of the latest tools available to faculty allows them to create animated simulations.

Even with this expansion of online offerings and support, GSC has also continued to invest in technology and innovation at our state-wide campus centers. Our recent campus centers in Rochester, Manchester, and Littleton all offer an array of classroom technology, including wireless connectivity. More importantly, our innovations around curriculum are making higher education more accessible to adults and working professionals. We are launching fast-track programs this year that offer an accelerated and streamlined path to completing a bachelor degree.

State appropriations are certainly key to our ability to offer the best higher education value possible, but equally important is our ability to innovate. While appropriations may be down, innovation at GSC has never been higher.

The story of John; a true lifelong learner

Tuesday, July 12, 2011 by Deidre Romeo

The inspiring story below is that of John, another ALA Scholarship Recpient for 2011. John is just one more example of the unique and diverse student population you will find within the classrooms or on the blackboards of Granite State College.

   My educational journey has encompassed self-learning for most of my life after high-school. My father passed away when I was in seventh-grade and I was a C+ student in a Catholic High School in Lawrence, MA. I began college in Maine intending to study Marine Biology but being a mediocre student I needed student loans to cover all of my expected expenses. I dropped out several weeks after the start for fear of mounting student loan debt. At eighteen I entered the workforce as a high-school graduate, married my wife in 1981 and began a family in 1983. As expected my job choices were very limited but I held a desire to enter the technology field. After much research I chose Sylvania Technical School and entered the Telecommunications Electronics program using student loans once again, but these were limited and controllable. Our first daughter, Bethany, was born with a heart defect and passed away after heart surgery at 7-days old. Our second daughter, Noelle, was born just over a year later in 1984 but was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy at 1-year. Her care was a significant part of our existence and it took a huge effort on my part to attend Sylvania Tech three days per week at night after my job to attend classes in addition to sacrificing that time away from my family, but it was for their benefit that I was educating myself to better position me for employment that provided a living wage and benefits that we so dearly needed for Noelle’s care. Just before I graduated in 1988 with a diploma I interviewed for an Information Technology position at Raytheon and because of the reputation of Sylvania Tech and my grades I was hired as a Data Communications Field Tech.

   Wentworth Institute of Technology purchased Sylvania Technical School before I completed my program so my diploma bore the Wentworth name. Because of this relationship Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston offered graduates of Sylvania/Wentworth Tech advance standing entry into an A.A.S. in Electronic Technology degree program. Raytheon’s tuition reimbursement benefits were significant enough to allow me to attend one course per semester at their Boston campus and continue my career college training. It took me five years from 1992 till 1997 to complete my associate degree. Five years of time and travel into Boston and precious time away from my family. Nights and weekends I worked at our kitchen table on study and research while my family patiently gave me the time I needed for my studies. My wife supported my endeavor by taking on additional care responsibilities for our daughter. I wanted to complete my associate degree so that I could advance my career, become a better provider, and show my growing daughter that education is important and is a lifelong endeavor. Noelle passed away on the second-to-last day of a wish trip to Disney on May 19, 1996. My life was shaken for months after that event. I did not attend the spring or summer semesters that year but eventually wanted to complete that degree for my daughter. Two more semesters and I was finally able to dedicate my degree to Noelle during graduation on May 18, 1997, one day short of the first anniversary of her death.

   Afterward I honestly didn’t have the drive to continue my education at Wentworth. Like many parents who have lost children I grieved by immersing myself in my work. I continued to attend annual technical training to hone my information technology skill-sets which made me a more valuable employee but every year that passed I still thought about completing my degree. After graduating Wentworth I worked with a recruiter from Boston in a job search. He informed me that he would not be able to even get me into some corporate doors for interviews without having at least a bachelor’s degree. Fortunately after interviewing at Lahey Clinic Medical Center they valued my technical skills more than my education and hired me as a Data Communications Engineer. Each year that followed I have given consideration to completing my adult college degree but talked myself out of it. Each year I thought, “if I had only begun last year I would almost be done”. Well after a close scrutiny and self-assessment a couple of years ago about my past, present, and future life and career I decided to take that first step to completing my B.S. I realized that as I grow older I am handicapped from further career growth without completing an adult college degree, B.S. After almost twenty-five years working in technical positions in the field of information technology I find myself desiring to move into a leadership/management position within my current field of healthcare IT.

   I began the next iteration of my education journey in the spring of 2009 with Granite State College. I discovered that the program for Applied Studies: Allied Health Services was tailor made to my career. I have almost twenty-five years of technical experience but I needed to round out my business skills that are so valued in industry. This B.S. will give me the necessary business skills with a slant toward the healthcare field that I currently work in, providing a targeted learning environment for me. I began this degree program intending to provide myself and my wife “career insurance” to update and round out my skills, make me a more valuable employee and insure my future ability to provide a home and life for the both of us. That goal has morphed over the course of the past two years, sparking my interest in pursuing an advanced degree after I complete my B.S. this spring at GSC. Plymouth State offers a M.B.A. in Healthcare Administration, an ideal advanced degree for my career plans to remain in healthcare.

   After spending over a decade caring for our daughter, Noelle, at home and in Boston Children’s Hospital I would never have imagined that I would be working in the healthcare field yet here I am. My education has been a struggle of work/life/family/financial balance yet we have accomplished much with the time we have had together. I dedicated my A.A.S. to my daughter, Noelle. I plan to dedicate my pending B.S. to my loving wife, Kathy, for her patient support during these past two years and God willing I will dedicate my future M.B.A. to everyone who has supported me and my family. We have a great deal of loving family and friends in our lives, some have been treated at Lahey Clinic, my employer, and at least one had his life saved at Lahey with a liver/kidney transplant. I am proud to dedicate my career to such an institution and hope that my continued education will allow me opportunities to serve in greater capacities. I plan to achieve my B.S. before I am fifty-years old. I still have between fifteen and twenty career years in front of me; I plan to contribute further to the success of Lahey Clinic’s service to our community, friends, and family. I may have started as a mediocre high-school student but I believe with time and continued commitment to the goals I set and achieve for my benefit and also for my wife I am gaining back the opportunities I missed in my youth. Two more semesters and I will have achieved this next goal while I plan yet further!

Please visit John's website to learn more about his personal accomplishments.

Health Care Management

Tuesday, March 1, 2011 by John Cook

A recent note from the US Department of Labor finds that employment for medical and health care managers is expected to rise faster than average. Looking around the landscape of New Hampshire and other states, the outlook for jobs is very promising in this area. But what about preparation for those individuals seeking to work in the field of health care management? Good news now that Granite State College, the institution within the University System of New Hampshire that focuses on adult students, has launched our B.S. degree in Health Care Management.

I'm particularly excited for students enrolling in the Health Care Management degree because of the fantastic faculty that will be teaching in the program. For example, Catherine DiPentima who holds both an M.B.A. and a Nursing degree, offers practical and applied knowledge that is so well suited for adult students.